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Showing posts from 2010

Isis Strike Revisited

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Over the past week, in spite of having very little free time, I (metaphorically) dusted off some of my old game development tools and decided to revisit that particular former pastime. This time around, with the intent of just playing around (as opposed to taking another crack at the indie software business any time soon), I had an interesting little success in recently converting my old Windows game Isis Strike to an Adobe Flash version. So basically, now Isis Strike can be played in any major operating system with high speed internet, so long as Adobe Flash player is installed . https://www.mochimedia.com/games/isis-strike Note / Disclaimer: During the bug-fighting and other experiments of the conversion process, there were some minor changes to the game- Most notably, there are (1) a little less variety of enemies, (2) more weapons and (3) I apologize in advance for whatever looks less cool in 256 colors. Also, like the original Isis Strike , the game's pace gets a little f

Viva Colombia

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As some people know, at the beginning of this month, I got to take a week-long trip to Colombia and essentially knock visiting South America off of my bucket list. It was a fairly fun and wacky adventure, complete with strange foods,  fun companions, super fancy hotels, police bribery, eclectic locales and all the  crazy cross-cultural experiences a travel junkie can thrive on for a week. Since it's now weeks later,  I'd say it's quite obvious I didn't have much time to blog about the trip during or since. However, for the curious of mind, here's a public link to my Facebook photo album appropriately titled: Viva Colombia . ;) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=242499&l=d2b8c45278&id=585203371

Little Time to Blog Big

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Here's a quick little entry for anyone out there under the severe misunderstanding that silence in my blog might mean that nothing is going on lately... quite the opposite in fact ... but as anyone who reads this stuff can tell, I've always been a fairly sporadic and less-than-avid blogger, especially over the past couple of years. Lately though, what can I say? As much as I'd love to goof around on the web more often, these days it seems I'm too busy a guy. If you do happen to follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter , you have at least an idea that back in September I switched jobs and moved across the country yet again. This time, after two years of work and study in Florida, I pulled up stakes and moved to Los Angeles to work as a visual effects artist for a really interesting company called Stereo D . Yup, I'm working on Hollywood movies... and while to some folks out here in Cali, working on a big budget movie with big name talent might not be too big of a deal;

5 States in Just Under a Week

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In the middle of last week, I flew out from my current home of Central Florida up to Bradley Airport in Connecticut . From there, as is typical of my visits to the New England region, I went to Western Massachusetts to spend a few days chilling out and goofing around with family and friends. After that, it was off to the beautiful, green, cell phone reception-killing mountains of Vermont , where I proudly watched some good friends start a new life together. Usually, I'm quite cynical as to guessing how long most marriages will last, but I think these two are for keeps. When you look at them together, the love is very evident... along with potential long-term makings of quirky grandparents for almost any sitcom. ;) Well anyhoo, after all that mushy knot-tying action, it was back to Connecticut for me, so I could fly out to sexy Las Vegas ... and while I have been to other parts of Nevada before, this was my first real Vegas adventure! Even though I'm not much o

Riding the Pendulum

Life is composed of many kinds of ups and downs and most people often seem to be either in a state of utter happiness or dwelling on all that is horrid with their world. Some say, the best place to be is right in the middle, content with life, feeling graced by whatever they think is nice and coping with all that could be better.  Personally, I say that's a load of crap. The lows in life are inevitable and they may be more difficult to cope with when they come right after a series of truly great moments, but what if you know how to hang on to the feeling of those great moments? What if those great moments give you something better to shoot for and inspire you to step up and conquer when an opportunity really presents itself? I had a really crappy week last week. To my knowledge, nobody significant to me died and beyond routine headaches and stress, I wasn't really sick or injured or anything like that. The week just simply sucked, Friday the 13th and all! At the start of

Rolling in Miami

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Just when I was really starting to complain that I never seem to travel anymore, this past weekend, my business partner and I took off for a brief working holiday down in Miami. While I'm not sure if Miami makes my top ten all-time travel destinations, this weekend showed me it definitely gets honorable mention as a place worth checking out at some point. Between a beachy urban energy only slightly more sane than LA, multicultural art deco settings that vaguely remind me of Singapore and an unstoppable Latin funk that you can only hope to find in Florida, Miami is clearly one of those fascinating cities of the world that has it's own unmistakable persona. Oh, and when I say " multicultural " I really f@#king mean it! At midnight on Saturday, I stood in the most subculturally diverse fast food take out line ever , comprised of myself, some Latino gang-bangers, three douche-bag frat boys, a redneck tourist and her small daughter, a pair of crack-heads from the hood (

Please Go Away, Glenn

As many people who read this blog would know, once upon a time, I taught art, multimedia and other related subjects as a college lecturer. Time and time again, while lecturing on various media-related topics, I would occasionally tell my students that Reductio ad Hitlerum is possibly the lowest and most pathetic form of debate.  It is with this belief that I am ashamed of my country for allowing someone like Glenn Beck to attain any kind of celebrity status (especially in the "news" world) and for the good of American culture, I deeply wish that Mr. Beck would take the advice given at the end of this video. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Love 'dem Internets

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So, this afternoon a friend told me over the phone that she is strongly considering buying a new car and asked me to help her do some research online, while she was busy at work. After reading a bit of caranddriver.com , a Google search lead me to wander through a few other car enthusiast websites before I found myself about to search the forums at Ultimatecarpage.com . While on the search page, I couldn't help but to notice the site's tag cloud, displaying all of the automotive forum's most popular topics. As you might notice, something just kinda stuck out at me. Gotta love 'dem internets. :P .

Walking Old Paths in New Places

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"Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!" I doubt anything describes my love-hate relationship with the art of web design better than the iconic Al Pacino quote above.   Just over a year ago, I told myself that I was done with web design for good, with the intent of focusing my creativity on animation and visual effects.  Well, it seems in the past few weeks I felt a need to compromise on that one a bit.  Recently, I had hosting issues with my job hunting blog for animators and VFX artists. So, I moved the blog to another domain and couldn't resist giving it a massive (all-be-it somewhat template-aided) redesign as part of the moving process.  VFXJobHunt.com Also, given that I am currently a resident of Florida and a former resident of Hawaii, I guess it was only a matter of time that I somehow got involved in real estate. Thus, in recent weeks, I accepted a complex leadership role with a new company called Gulf Management Group , which among many othe

Saw some of it coming...

Once upon a time, I dreamed of being a big-shot video game developer, and after watching this great lecture, I wonder why I'm not one. :/

新年快樂

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Year of the Tiger, folks... Hell yeah! That's my year! ;)